Hi All,
We are very happy to report that we have released the Wikimedia
Foundation's first transparency report, which can be found at
transparency.wikimedia.org. You can read more about the release in this blog
post
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/08/06/wikimedia-foundation-releases-first-transparency-report/>.
We encourage you to take a look and explore the report!
We would also like to update you on some news regarding the "right to be
forgotten." The right to be forgotten has been the subject of much
discussion and debate, within the Wikimedia movement and throughout the
world, particularly following the May European Court of Justice judgment
<http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:62012CJ0131>
ordering Google to delist some links related to a Spanish citizen. Since
then, search engines have been receiving requests to remove hundreds of
thousands of URLs from search results. Google recently released more
information
<https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/file/d/0B8syaai6SSfiT0EwRUFyOENqR3M/edit>
about its right to be forgotten requests.
Since the judgment, the WMF legal team has been watching the “right to be
forgotten” issue closely and considering what legal strategies we should
take going forward. Over the course of the last week or so, we have
received our first five notices from Google advising us that over 50 links
to Wikimedia sites were to be removed from search results.
Today, WMF held a press briefing announcing our strategy of advocacy and
transparency on link censorship. We will oppose what we see as a misguided
court decision that has resulted in a crude implementation of the “right to
be forgotten.” Lila has also issued a statement
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/08/06/european-court-decision-punches-holes-in-free-knowledge/>,
and Geoff and I have published a blog
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/08/06/wikipedia-pages-censored-in-european-search-results/>
about the notices we have received and our plan going forward.
Best,
Michelle
--
Michelle Paulson
Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
149 New Montgomery Street, 6th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
mpaulson(a)wikimedia.org
415.839.6885 ext. 6608 (Office)
415.882.0495 (Fax)
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